Thursday of the
Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
(Philippians 3:3-8a; Luke 15:1-10)
A man speaks of his experience of God. He says that the day his wife’s doctor
reported that she had breast cancer, he felt particularly low. That even, as was his custom, he went into his
parish church to lock up. Then, in the
darkness, he felt the embrace of the Lord around his body. From then on, the man knew that everything was
going to be all right. Almost certainly,
St. Paul refers to an experience such as this in the first reading today.
Paul is never ashamed of being a Jew. Quite the contrary, he knows that Jews have
been chosen by God to bear the divine promise of salvation. He is likewise almost gleeful to have been
faithful to the Covenant between God and Israel. But Paul is certain that in the end, being a
Jew is not important. Nor is it very helpful
to be righteous based on the law. What
really counts is to have encountered Jesus Christ. As he so uncompromisingly puts it, “…I
consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord.”
We too know the Lord Jesus. Perhaps we sense his presence in Confession
where we are accepted even after revealing what is most ugly about ourselves. Or maybe we have encountered him through a gospel
parable that has seared our consciousness with wisdom, goodness, and
beauty. Maybe we have recognized him in
the man who bed-ridden for eleven years says that he has nothing to complain
about when he looks at a crucifix. We know
Jesus and we love him. That is all that matters.
